Owner Is Threatened with Cruelty Case After Taking Injured Puppy from Vet

It didn’t look good initially either for a New Zealand man or his injured puppy.

Bronson Stewart and his family couldn’t afford to treat their 5-month-old dog, Buck, whose leg was broken when he was hit by a car two weeks ago. And when a veterinarian refused to return the puppy, saying that it would be kinder to euthanize him because he was in pain, Stewart asked to see his pet, grabbed him and ran home, the Associated Press reports.

This led to a threatened animal cruelty prosecution of the Wanganui man by New Zealand’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The public stepped in when the puppy’s plight was publicized, however, donating enough money to have his leg treated, the news agency recounts.

Stewart, 18, had a job at a fast-food outlet but hasn’t been able to work for months because of a head injury from a criminal attack, the Wanganui Chronicle reports.

A number of people who made donations said they had little money themselves, but had personal experience with having to put a pet down because they couldn’t afford to treat it and didn’t want Buck to suffer the same fate, the newspaper reports.